Secondhand Christmas shopping!

 

Why should you buy secondhand items this Christmas? There are several reasons!

Vintage items have made a huge comeback over the years! Why buy a reproduction at a large store when you could go to your local restores and buy the original at a great price! One of the things we work hard to do here at the ReStore is research. If an item has a marking on it or any kind of identifier, we go online and use multiple different websites to see what our items go for online, and we take a considerable discount off whatever we find it going for.

We do our very best to make sure you’re getting the best price for vintage and antique things that you can’t find anywhere else! This year a lot of Christmas budgets are a lot lower than previous years because of Covid-19. You don’t have to worry about blowing your budget with us!

Have you ever worried that you’re going to give the same gift to a friend or loved one as someone else? Shopping with us almost guarantees your gift will be unique! Whether you’re looking for something trendy, vintage, quirky, or outright odd, we have you covered!

 

Make sure to make us and your other local resale shops on your list of places to stop this holiday!

 

-Emily Godwin, Store Manager.

Happy Thanksgiving!

 This time of year, we always reflect on what wonderful blessings our ministry has received throughout the year. We can not thank our community enough for all the happiness they bring to us and their neighbors. Because of our donors, patrons, and volunteers we were able to see a new homeowner move into her very own Habitat home. This year has been hard for a lot of people, but seeing Ms. Joy receiving her keys helped brighten 2020 tremendously for all of us.

One of my absolute favorite things about being a part of the Habitat family is watching someone in our community find something in our ReStore that they've been searching for or something they didn't know that they even needed but are thrilled to have. Your donations help brighten so many lives every week. 

We are so thankful for each and every person who enters our doors. Whether you're here to shop, donate, or volunteer, we are always so happy to see you all. You guys and our homeowners remind us why we do what we do. Your joy and happiness and kindness is what keeps us going, and for that we will always be thankful.

May God bless you all, and we hope you all have a very happy Thanksgiving!

- Emily Godwin, Store Manager.

We’re looking for volunteers!

Our volunteers are so special to us and to this organization. Habitat for Humanity is volunteer driven and without our fantastic volunteers, our mission wouldn’t be possible. Because of our volunteers, we have been able to build 51 homes, and 10 critical home repairs! We are able to bless so many in our community because of generous hearts and helping hands!  

Something I hear a lot is - “I’d love to volunteer, but I don’t know how to build houses” and “I’m just afraid I wouldn’t be useful in the store.” Everyone is useful in the ReStore! There are so many different tasks that are all equally important to keep our store up and running. We need people to help take in donations when they come in, to clean and organize the merchandise, help put priced items on the floor, assist with writing tickets for shoppers and pointing them toward the items they’re looking for.

We love our volunteers like family and every day they’re here is a great day. If you want to join our Habitat family, please give us a call at (662) 329-2501!

Meet Donation Ambassador Emily!

 Hello, everyone! 

My name is Emily Ferguson. I began working with the Habitat ReStore as a Donation Ambassador in July, and I have enjoyed it so much! As you may have noticed, we have two Emilys who work here. Ms. Joy even started calling me Emily 2, and our wonderful store manager Emily 1 haha. Either way, we both look up and are ready to help any time someone says Emily. 

As a Donation Ambassador, I am grateful to able to meet so many of our donors along with our customers. Every Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, I accompany Kalib or Matthew on pick-ups for the donations that won't fit in standard vehicles. We are blessed to have our box truck, which helps us to retrieve the donations that people want to give us but cannot drop off themselves, such as couches, cabinets, and tables, just to name a few. By going out to the donors homes, I feel like we are able to further connect with the people who keep this store thriving. Each donation counts and helps so much toward the building of our Habitat homes, and I love being able to personally thank each donor for their contributions. 

For anyone interested,  we are available to pick up those larger donations every Monday -Wednesday 9am-3pm. Just give us a call to schedule your time, and we will be more than happy to come pick it up. We appreciate all the support our community gives, both through donations and through shopping. We look forward to serving you, and I look forward to meeting more of our Habitat family! 

God bless you!  

Emily F., ReStore Donation Ambassador

Joy's Happy-tat!

We were so happy to give Ms. Joy the keys to her brand new Habitat home on September 10th! She was very rightly named because whenever she is around, joy fills the room, and Thursday afternoon was no exception. To see the sheer happiness on her face as she went into her home for the first time is something everyone there will remember and cherish forever. 

We cannot thank everyone who helped make this possible enough, but we will surely try! We would like to give a special thanks to -

Tony Dunser from True Grit who painted the beautiful red doors and the trim

Savage Tree Service

Mike Williams who did the electrical work

Baldwin Sand and Gravel

Brandon Dozier and Curt Schumacher for helping removing the large tree in the backyard

Lighting Unlimited 

Grass Pro Plus for doing the landscaping

Shane Glasgow

Parker Drywall

Paint Magic

Sqwincher

Rock Bottom Furniture 

Thank you to all the volunteers who worked countless weekends at the job site, our Board Members, ReStore Volunteers and staff, and of course thank you to our fabulous donors and shoppers! You all are the reason this ministry can help provide affordable housing to our homeowners!

Ms. Joy's home will always hold a very special place with me because it was the first home built with me as the new Store Manager, and Joy has become a very dear friend to everyone in the store. It is a great honor to be a part of something that is bettering the lives of others in our community.

God bless you all.

-Emily Godwin, ReStore Manager

Thursday and Friday in the ReStore

 

Hey, everyone! I decided to combine the Thursday and Friday posts because a lot of the same things happen while we are open to the public for sales.

Thursday morning is when we make all the puzzle pieces lock together. From the time we get into the store at 8:00 until we open the doors at 12:00, we stay busy putting final touches on displays, double checking prices on the smaller items, and pricing the large furniture items on the floor. Something a lot of people don’t know is that we research every item that has any kind of identifier on it. If it has brand name on it, we look up that company and then take a considerable amount off the online price.

Every Thursday, Friday, and Saturday before we open the doors, we get together as a team. We discuss what each person will be doing in the store while we’re open, discuss any updates on the houses we’re building, and we always close it with a prayer of thanks to the Lord for all the many blessings this ministry continues to see. Once the doors are open, the staff and volunteers go to work helping shoppers. Everyone here has such a passion for helping others and that energy is so contagious that you can’t help smiling when you’re here.

Some things have changed since I took over as store manager, but one thing that will never change is how grateful we are for every shopper and donor that comes to our store. Each of you are such a blessing to us, and we love seeing you guys every week.

 

-Emily Godwin, ReStore Manager.

Wednesday at the ReStore

Wednesday is the busiest day of the week for us here at the ReStore! It's the day the store transforms from a work-in-progress to the beautifully displayed store that you all see Thursdays at 12! It takes a lot of hard work from a lot of people to make it all go as smoothly as it does every week. We are extremely blessed to have such talented volunteers!

Most of the staging in the store is done by two very special volunteers. Shirley and Jennifer come every Wednesday to work their magic in every area of the store. They have such an amazing eye for what works together and how to create and improve the look of every vignette! One of the biggest compliments we get here is how beautiful the store looks, and we make sure to pass that on to them!

On Wednesdays, we have a flawless team in the back working on pricing and putting the merchandise out on the floor. Ms. Barbara, Ms. Deborah, and Ms. Bronwyn are three of our main Wednesday volunteers who help the staff clean, price, and get the donations on the shelves. They all work fabulously as a team, and the ReStore is always a happier place with such wonderful volunteers.

The Assistant ReStore Managers - Chelcee and Matthew -  and our Donation Ambassadors - Kalib, Emily, and Diane - help to make sure that the store is organized and that everything is running smoothly. They take in donations, place furniture, clean the store, and overall help wherever help is needed. Occasionally, we work in a few donation pick-ups on Wednesdays, but we try to stay in store as much as possible because of how much has to happen so quickly! 

We've never had a dull day at the store, and I doubt we ever will! That's what makes working here so much fun!

-Emily Godwin, ReStore Manager.